Air quality monitoring has been developing after serious contamination events affected the environment and human health. This research aims to collect existing information about air quality monitoring, its history, and global context over the years, as well as technologies and methods of measuring different existing air pollutants. As a methodology, we used a systematic literature review to find the main typologies of atmospheric pollutants, measuring methods, pollutants used from the 20th century to the present, technologies used, and meteorological variables. Likewise, we described the established times and locations and the initiatives of air quality measurement globally through the years and, as a result, proposed an alternative monitoring system. In conclusion, precision depends on the type of pollutant monitoring used or on the treatment of the data. Keywords: air quality control, environmental health, human health, pollution. https://doi.org/10.55463/issn.1674-2974.50.5.14